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Re: [carfree_cities] Re: Should bike racks be placed on public transit vehicles?

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Richard Risemberg

... In Los Angeles, almost every bus has a bike rack, and folks use them quite a lot. And of course you can just roll a bike onto the Metro trains, though not

Message 1 of 3
, Feb 3, 2003

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Steve wrote:

> Mike,
>
> In Ottawa we have bike racks on some buses, not all but still we have
> some. In Hull (Gatineau) just across the Ottawa River we don't have
> any.

In Los Angeles, almost every bus has a bike rack, and folks use them
quite a lot. And of course you can just roll a bike onto the Metro
trains, though not at rush hour, and you do need a permit which I
believe is free.

"Hope cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. It is
just like the roads across the earth. For actually there were no roads
to begin with, but when many people pass one way a road is made."

Lu Hsun

Jason Davies

... In the UK you can do somethign similar with many (but not all) trains (though not buses! not our buses...too small) in off-peak hours but if you want to go

Message 2 of 3
, Feb 4, 2003

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>In Los Angeles, almost every bus has a bike rack, and folks use them
>quite a lot. And of course you can just roll a bike onto the Metro
>trains, though not at rush hour, and you do need a permit which I
>believe is free.

In the UK you can do somethign similar with many (but not all) trains
(though not buses! not our buses...too small) in off-peak hours but if you
want to go on a long-distance one you have to book it and pay an extra £3
($5) each way; which makes it very inconvenient as you cannot always just
hop on and off (even for a short trip on a long distance train). Some areas
though, such as the Yorkshire Moors, don't carry bikes at all. And some
have a stupid little space for bikes which people always fill with
suitcases immediately (and you can't get on until they do, as they are in
the way...). It's far from satisfactory.

Mark Watson

Bike racks on buses *are* used a fair bit here in Seattle. And like Paul in Austin, some routes are often quite full. One of the 2 floating bridges that

Message 3 of 3
, Feb 5, 2003

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Bike racks on buses *are* used a fair bit here in Seattle. And like Paul in Austin, some routes are often quite full. One of the 2 floating bridges that cross Lake Washington, doesn't allow bikes on the roadway; but all buses, including off-duty ones, are supposed to stop for cyclists waiting at the stops. The trouble is, many buses zoom by because their racks are full.

There's another, much simpler appoach to this problem,
which is the use of "white bikes," loaner bikes that you
"drag and drop." You'd ride your own bike to the transit
halt, lock up your bike, ride to close to your destination,
grab a white bike, and pedal there. These systems have
been tried, successfully, in Copenhagen and unsuccessfully
in Amsterdam (theft problems in the first attempt 35 years
ago, equipment troubles with a recent revival).

IMHO, it doesn't make a lot of sense to try to accommodate
bikes on buses. It's an operational problem (delays while
people mount and remove their bikes) and there's no reasonable
solution to the problem of inadequate space for bikes if more
than two people want to use them. We can't have city buses
delayed for several minutes while bikes are being handled.
With metros (and possibly trams), it would be possible to
dedicate one car of the train to wheeled vehicles generally,
arranged for direct roll-on, roll-off loading/unloading.
I just don't think it works very well with buses, and the
systems I've seen rarely appear to be used.

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